Thumbnail 6: Flash Fiction: Thumbnail Magazine

By Aubrey Hirsch

This sixth installment of Thumbnail, a magazine dedicated to flash fiction, was guest edited by Aubrey Hirsch, author of Why We Never Talk About Sugar. Features new work by Matt Bell, Ron Burch, Douglas Cole, Niki Dreistadt, Sherrie Flick, Amy Glasenapp, Joe Kapitan, Shawnacy Kiker, Morgana MacLeod, Brian Oliu, Dutch Pearce, Robert Perchan, Timmy R

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cobalt Press
• Release date: Feb 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781941462119

Book preview

MATT BELL

THE GOLDEN PRINCESS,

THE IRON MAID

Matt Bell is the author of the novel In the House Upon the Dirt Between the Lake and the Woods, a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award and the winner of the Paula Anderson Book Award. His next novel, Scrapper, will be published in fall 2015. He teaches creative writing at Arizona State University.

THE YOUNGER WAS SO BEAUTIFUL that the older knew there must be a serpent inside her mouth, because everywhere there was beauty there was the threat of death. Even as a child the older practiced with sword and shield, cut her hair short so it would fit beneath a helmet, and when the young sister married first, the older was not dismayed. Instead she moved into her sister’s household, then earned a seat at the husband’s table of knights. Each summer there was a campaign, the younger riding beside her king, the older beside the younger, and each summer the older distinguished herself in battle, cutting down a hundred men, sieging a castle, slaying a chimera or a gorgon. But it was at home where the older fought the toughest battles, when each month her sister released the dragon within her, a beast unfurled from her mouth, of red scales and blooded breath that only the older could drive back. It could not be defeated—not now, when the younger was at the peak of her fairness—but surely one day the younger must diminish, and her dragon with her. The older awaited that day, hoped it would come before she too was weakened. Already her pale skin was leathery with scars, already her bones creaked and popped when she walked. Every year the armor was heavier. And as much as she had always loved her twin sister, she wondered now if she loved the dragon more. It was only he who truly matched her, claw for sword, scale for armor, hate for jealous hate.

SHAWNACY KIKER

THURGOOD AND THE SECRET

Shawnacy Kiker is an MFA candidate at UC-Riverside, mother of seven, and the poetry editor of The Coachella Review. She self-published her first work of fiction, Donald Duck, Surprise! in her bedroom at the age of four. The work is currently out of print.

THERE WAS A SECRET. It lived between. One day a young philologist named Thurgood thought of the secret and it became his secret. That’s how this whole secret thing works. The secret liked Thurgood. It liked riding around in his pocket. It liked being scratched behind the ears. Thurgood tried to think of a name for the secret, but nothing seemed to fit. This is the problem with secrets. The secret grew and became many things; a coat, a butterfly, a sore muscle, a pinecone, a slice of cake. Until at last it was something like a galaxy, full of many moving parts and ideas and lights too numerous to count. And Thurgood could no longer tell if what he held was infinities large or if it was the smallest piece of the very smallest thing. He thought on this matter for a long time. So long that he began to despair. Such a secret to go on like this, unknown, ununderstood. It was him. Thurgood. He was lacking. His mind was not bright enough. He was not up to the task. He was not worthy of the secret. He would have to give it up to someone better, and then where would he be? Which is when the secret began to talk. It had a lovely, strange voice like hollow water. Thurgood, it said, enough already. I am not your secret, you are mine. And the secret spun a little